An Overview of Child Abuses in 3D Social Networks and Online Video Games

2012 ◽  
pp. 101-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Garcia-Ruiz ◽  
Miguel Vargas Martin ◽  
Patrik Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Child Abuse ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Child Pornography ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Ethical And Legal Issues ◽  
Network Approaches

It appears that child pornography distribution and child abuses on the Internet have permeated to massively multiplayer online role-playing video games (MMORPG) and 3D social networks, such as Second Life (SL), a compelling online virtual world where millions of users have registered. Although SL is intended for general entertainment in its adult (over 18) version, cases of simulated pedophilia have been reported inside SL’s virtual world, generated by some of its users, employing SL communication capabilities to trade and show child pornography images to exchange related text messages. This chapter provides a literature review on child pornography in MMORPGs and other 3D social networks including SL, as well as policy and network approaches for overcoming child abuse. A review on ethical and legal issues of dealing with child pornography and other types of child abuse in 3D social networks and MMORPGs is also addressed in this chapter.

The Reality of Virtual Reality

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Lybeck ◽  
Dana Bruhn ◽  
Solen Feyissa
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Teaching Activities ◽  
One Year ◽  
Research Period

In order to improve teacher preparation courses offered online, a study of the use of Second Life virtual world for peer-teaching activities was conducted. The research period was over one year and the sampling group consisted of 25 Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) students. The methods practiced during the study follow the suggestions and implications given in previous research in hopes that an informed design would be the means to overcome the published limitations of Second Life. Despite this, the authors were not able to overcome previous difficulties, and did not find Second Life to be useful as a tool for classroom role-playing in online teacher-development courses. Virtual reality, however, has promise for facilitating teacher development; thus, further investigation is needed to find an appropriate virtual venue for this purpose.

Visual Analyses of the Creation of Avatars

2011 ◽  
pp. 284-300
Author(s):  
Erik W. Black ◽  
Richard E. Ferdig ◽  
Joseph C. DiPietro ◽  
Feng Liu ◽  
Baird Whalen
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Ideal Self ◽  
Quantitative Review ◽  
The Real ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Real Person

Video games are becoming more popular; there has been a particular rise in interest and use of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs). These games utilize avatar creation; avatars can be seen as the technological instantiation of the real person in the virtual world. Little research has been conducted on avatar creation. Although it is has been anecdotally postulated that you can be anything you want online, there is a dearth of research on what happens when participants are told to create avatars, particularly avatars within given contexts. In this study, we used the Second Life avatar creation tool to examine what would happen when participants were told to create avatars as heroes, villains, their ideal self, and their actual self. Data analyses reveal that characters often refuse to change permanent aspects of their features, instead modifying only temporal aspects. This research has provided support for the quantitative review of avatar characteristics as predictors of vignette groupings.

scholarly journals Machinima and ethnographic research in three-dimensional virtual worlds

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Débora Krischke Leitão ◽  
Laura Graziela Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
3D Graphics ◽  
Ethnographic Data

In this paper we propose to share our experience of ethnographic research in the virtual world Second Life. We intend to narrate our experience producing machinima the method we used to enter the field and interact with residents. The production of films from the software and or hardware of video games or other real-time 3D graphics programs is called machinima. Our goal here is to discuss the possibility of using machinima as a technique for obtaining, presenting and interpreting ethnographic data.

Second Life and World of Warcraft

2011 ◽  
pp. 236-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaka Chaka
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Cognitive Presence ◽  
Future Trends ◽  
Role Playing Game

This chapter explores the potential both Second Life (SL) and World of Warcraft (WoW) as instances of a virtual world (VW) and a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG), respectively, have for leveraging presence learning. The latter encapsulates, in this chapter, presence pedagogy, tele-presence, co-presence, social presence, and cognitive presence as mediated by both SL and WoW. In this context, this chapter contends that both SL and WoW help harness presence learning. Against this background, the chapter first provides a brief overview of SL, WoW, and presence learning. Second, it presents and discusses seven case studies demonstrating how both SL and WoW help harness presence learning. Third and last, the chapter outlines future trends for presence learning in respect of both SL and WoW.

Painting Machinima in Second Life

2015 ◽  
pp. 23-53
Author(s):  
Phylis Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Digital Society ◽  
Role Playing Games ◽  
Peter Greenaway ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
Virtual Platform ◽  
Massively Multiplayer

This chapter explores the technological and artistic revolution brought forth by machinima, particularly the rise among a community of filmmakers who would begin to express their stories and ideas through virtual worlds. Machinima has led to an emergence of scholarship on its aesthetics and cultural implications for digital society. The case of machinima as art is illustrated through a review of select works of virtual world filmmakers. This discussion also distinguishes the machinima concepts of game, virtual platform and more specifically virtual worlds to their varying degrees and relationships. It is here that one delineates the purpose of machinima within Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) to that of virtual worlds such as Second Life (SL). In doing so, the author follows the innovation of machinima through the evolution of gaming and its extension to stand-alone ready-to-wear software to potentialities called forth by British filmmaker Peter Greenaway regarding Second Life.

scholarly journals Real thinking with virtual hats: A role-playing activity for pre-service teachers in Second Life

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Gregory ◽  
Yvonne Masters
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Qualitative Survey ◽  
Physical Setting ◽  
Insight Into

<blockquote>Role-plays in a virtual world hold tremendous potential for higher education because they allow synchronous, immersive participation by students located across the globe. They also have the added advantage of allowing students to adopt roles and carry out tasks that are not possible in the real world. In this article, a project that involved pre-service teachers carrying out role-plays based on de Bono's <em>Six Thinking Hats</em> framework is presented. A pilot study was carried out over two years with on-campus students, who performed the role-plays both in a real-life, physical setting and within the virtual world of <em>Second Life</em>. The activity has since been extended to off-campus students exclusively using <em>Second Life</em>. The authors report selected quantitative and qualitative survey data from the pilot study that provide insight into students' perceptions of this style of learning, and discuss the challenges that were encountered and how they were overcome. The future of virtual world-based role-playing as a strategy for teaching and learning is discussed, with a focus on its application to distance education contexts.</blockquote>

Chicken Killers or Bandwidth Patriots?

2012 ◽  
pp. 140-160
Author(s):  
Kurt Reymers
Keyword(s):  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Physical Damage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Resource Dilemma ◽  
Psychological Harm

In 2008, a resident of a computerized virtual world called “Second Life” programmed and began selling a “realistic” virtual chicken. It required food and water to survive, was vulnerable to physical damage, and could reproduce. This development led to the mass adoption of chicken farms and large-scale trade in virtual chickens and eggs. Not long after the release of the virtual chickens, a number of incidents occurred which demonstrate the negotiated nature of territorial and normative boundaries. Neighbors of chicken farmers complained of slow performance of the simulation and some users began terminating the chickens, kicking or shooting them to “death.” All of these virtual world phenomena, from the interactive role-playing of virtual farmers to the social, political and economic repercussions within and beyond the virtual world, can be examined with a critical focus on the ethical ramifications of virtual world conflicts. This paper views the case of the virtual chicken wars from three different ethical perspectives: as a resource dilemma, as providing an argument from moral and psychological harm, and as a case in which just war theory can be applied.

Virtual Team Role Playing

2011 ◽  
pp. 316-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjoern Jaeger ◽  
Berit Helgheim
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Role Play ◽  
Virtual Team ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Cost Efficient

Working in a virtual world creates new opportunities for both students and teachers. In particular, virtual team role play provides excellent support for collaborative learning approaches in a cost efficient manner. The purpose of this chapter is to describe experiences developing a virtual team role play learning environment in Second Life® over a period of three years. Theoretical justification for bringing role playing into a virtual world is provided. The chapter outlines the role play, its setup in both real and virtual world, and describes how it has evolved from a setup at one university, to a distributed case involving several locations. Experiences from role playing sessions are presented for each year.

Second Life

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 60-64
Author(s):  
Galen Grimes ◽  
Michael Bartolacci
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Online Behavior ◽  
Role Playing Games ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
Security Training ◽  
Information Security Training

Virtual worlds have become increasingly popular with the growth of high speed Internet access worldwide and online gaming. The popularity of massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG), such as World of Warcraft, and virtual worlds, such as Second Life, has created an opportunity for educators to build a learning platform that students can readily relate to. This paper explores some of the possibilities of utilizing one particular virtual world (Second Life) as a platform for network and information security training with a focus on the profiling of online behavior. In particular it describes the initial attempts of its use at one of the Pennsylvania State University’s campuses.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document